This invention relates in general to telecommunication equipment and deals more particularly with a cross-connect bus for use on a cross-connect panel and a method for making such a bus.
The cross-connect bus of the present invention is particularly adapted for connection to a cross-connect panel, such as an AT&T 110 type panel, to establish desired circuit paths at the panel. Such a cross-connect panel provides a convenient centralized location for networking the communications and data processing systems within a building and for interconnecting the systems with an outside telecommunications network.
In most modern cross-connect panel systems, patch cords are employed at the panel to establish the various required circuits. A typical patch cord includes a flexible stranded wire cord with a patch plug attached to each end. Each patch plug generally has a housing containing an in-line array of flat contact blades adapted to be simultaneously pressed or plugged into and extracted from an equal number of mating insulation displacement contacts (IDCs) mounted on and projecting from an associated cross-connect panel. Typically, the contact blades within each patch plug housing are connected to individual stranded wire conductors in the patch cord by IDC terminations. Such stranded wire patch cords afford considerable flexibility, for ease of cable buildup during panel board installation, but are relatively expensive to produce, occupy considerable space and often present a generally confused wiring pattern at the panel. When it is necessary to interrupt or test a circuit at the cross-connect panel the patch cord associated with that circuit must be unplugged. This procedure may result in interruption of several other active circuits connected by the same patch cord. Further, repeated plugging and unplugging of patch cords adversely effects the integrity of the IDC connections and may ultimately lead to circuit failures at the cross-connect panel.
Accordingly, it is the general aim of the present invention to provide a compact low cost cross-connect bus for completing circuits at a cross-connect panel. It is a further aim of the invention to provide a cross-connect bus which facilitates interrupting or opening a desired circuit at a cross-connect panel, maintaining the circuit in open condition, testing both the upstream and downstream portions of a circuit or placing a tap on a circuit without removing the cross-connect bus associated with the circuit from the cross-connect panel.